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TPD announces recruiting campaign for more diversity

The Toledo Police Department announced its plans at the city’s police academy Thursday for a recruitment campaign with the goal of hiring more minorities.

The campaign will begin next month, and the police department’s recruiting team will look for candidates for the police academy’s next class, which is set to start in May, 2019, with 40 police trainees.

Chief George Kral and some members of the police department’s recruiting team spoke about the department’s efforts to build more diversity. The recruitment period begins Sunday, but candidates will be able to apply and take the department’s aptitude test beginning July 15. The application and testing process will end Sept. 30.

Chief Kral said he has two goals when beginning a recruiting period. He wants to recruit people who are dedicated to the city and are passionate about giving back to the community.

But he also wants to hire as diverse an academy class as possible.

“A diverse police department is a strong police department, and it also adds legitimacy to the community,” Chief Kral said.

As part of the campaign, the police department has also launched a new website that will make it easier for potential candidates to navigate.

Before, the department used toledopolice.com, and Lt. Jeff Thieman said people had a difficult time finding recruitment information on the department’s general website.

“This way they just to have to go to one location. It’s tpdhire.com,” Lieutenant Thieman said. “That’s going to be from here on out, that’s going to be our recruitment page.”

The police department plans to recruit a more diverse force by going to schools that have more diversity. Sgt. Lourdes Rocha helps lead the recruiting team, and she said the department also wants to reach out to more people digitally and through social media.

“We do a lot of digital stuff that will pinpoint or help us navigate and know where to target for that diversity group,” Sergeant Rocha said.